31.
He Ascended into Heaven, and Sitteth on the Right
Hand of the Father: from Thence He Shall Come to Judge the Quick and
the Dead. These clauses follow with suitable brevity at the end
of this part of the Creed which treats of the Son. What is said is
plain, but the question is how and in what sense it is to be
understood. For to “ascend,” and to “sit,” and
to “come,” unless you understand the words in accordance
with the dignity of the divine nature, appear to point to something of
human weakness. For having consummated what was to be done on earth,
and having recalled souls from the captivity of hell, He is spoken of
as ascending up to heaven, as the Prophet had foretold,
“Ascending up on high He led captivity captive, and gave gifts
unto men,”33753375Ps. lxviii.
18 those gifts,
namely, which Peter, in the Acts of the Apostles, spoke of concerning
the Holy Ghost, “Being therefore by the right hand of God
exalted, He hath shed forth this gift which ye do see and
hear.”33763376Acts ii. 33 He gave the gift of the Holy
Ghost to men, because the captives, whom the devil had before carried
into hell through sin, Christ by His resurrection from death recalled
to heaven. He ascended therefore into heaven, not where God the Word
had not been before, for He was always in heaven, and abode in the
Father, but where the Word made flesh had not been seated before.
Lastly, since this entrance within the gates of heaven seemed new to
its ministers and princes, they say to one another, on seeing the
nature of flesh penetrating into the secret recesses of heaven, as
David full of the Holy Ghost, declares, “Lift up your gates, ye
princes, and be ye lift up ye everlasting gates, and the King of glory
shall enter in. Who is the King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty,
the Lord mighty in battle.”33773377Ps. xxiv. 7, LXX. Which
words are spoken not with reference to the power of the divine nature,
but with reference to the novelty of flesh ascending to the right hand
of God. The same David says elsewhere, “God hath ascended
jubilantly, and the Lord with the sound of the trumpet.”33783378Ps. xlviii. 5 For conquerors are wont to return
from battle with the sound of the trumpet. Of Him also it is said,
“Who buildeth up His ascent in heaven.”33793379Ps. lxxxix. 2 And again, “Who hath ascended
above the cherubims, flying upon the wings of the winds.”33803380Ps. xviii. 10